PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Toby Hyde, New York City Resident, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
8:07:33
·
128 sec
Toby Hyde, a lifelong New Yorker, testified in support of the full City of Yes package, emphasizing the need for more housing in New York City. He highlighted personal experiences and the importance of affordable housing for families, particularly focusing on the proposal to remove parking minimums from new housing construction.
- Hyde stressed the impact of high housing costs on forcing friends to leave the city and his own inability to afford living in his childhood neighborhood.
- He specifically praised the proposal to remove parking minimums, citing examples of other cities where similar changes have led to more affordable housing.
- Hyde argued that New York City's current parking requirements, implemented in the 1950s, are outdated and hinder affordable housing development.
Toby Hyde
8:07:33
Thank you, chair.
8:07:34
Hi.
8:07:34
My name is Toby Hyde.
8:07:35
I'm a born and bred New Yorker.
8:07:37
I've been here for 25 years.
8:07:38
Grew up in Manhattan, and these days called Brooklyn Home.
8:07:42
I'm here because I firmly believe that New York City needs to build more housing, a lot more housing.
8:07:46
So I support the full city of ES package.
8:07:48
I'm sick of seeing my friends leave New York City for New Jersey or other suburbs or other states.
8:07:53
Because of the scary cost of raising a family in New York City.
8:07:57
This is more personal than ever for me today.
8:07:59
In August, my wife gave birth to our first child between the morning session the afternoon.
8:08:03
I went home and the baby spit up on me.
8:08:05
I cannot afford to live in the neighborhood I grew up on.
8:08:09
I'm lucky Nana is only a subway right away.
8:08:11
City of Yes is a small step in the direction to avoid that happening to my son.
8:08:16
Just last night, my wife and I were joking about what kind of overbearing Brooklyn parents would be.
8:08:21
We may differ about it.
8:08:22
We agreed that we can't actually force our son to live next door, but we want him to have the opportunity to live close to his parents when he grow up.
8:08:30
As in New York without a car, I do wanna specifically applaud city of yes for proposing to remove parking minimums from new housing construction.
8:08:37
This is really important.
8:08:39
Today's parking requirements lower the amount of new housing we produce, make it longer to build new housing, and thus make that housing more expensive.
8:08:47
Removing parking minimums is hardly radical.
8:08:50
Almost 100 American cities have done so from Spokane, Washington, liberal places like Birmingham, Alabama, Lexington, Kentucky, Austin, Texas, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Buffalo, and Bridgeport, Connecticut closer to home.
8:09:04
And you know what?
8:09:05
That change is working to make those cities more affordable.
8:09:08
In Buffalo and Minneapolis, less parking is being built, and rents are falling.
8:09:12
8 of the 10 cheapest, excuse me, among year over year.
8:09:17
In the 10 submarkets that have seen rent decreases, 8 of the 10 are in in Texas.
8:09:22
Why?
8:09:22
Because they're relaxing requirements and letting people build housing.
8:09:26
New York City made the mistake to bet add parking requirements in the fifties.
8:09:30
It was a seventy five year old mistake.
8:09:31
I don't we don't we're not gonna raise our kid like it 75 years ago.
8:09:34
We shouldn't have a zoning code that acts like as 75 years ago.
8:09:38
So, again, I support the full city of the S Package and current city council of
Kevin C. Riley
8:09:41
the bank.
